PanDaemonAeon - part II

Daemonscape I

The four stood in silence where they had fist arrived in this place, staring out at the barren alien landscape, "Even the western desert had more life than this," said Eshe.

"And at least you could get a suntan there ..." Sora looked up at the low clouds boiling in the red-black sky.

"Where do you think we are?" murmured Eshe, glancing at Nightfall who was sat on the ground near her feet. Nightfall just shrugged. This wasn’t anywhere she recognised.

"Maybe I can get a signal!" Sora produced the celphone she always carried with a flourish and stabbed away at the buttons.

Despite the situation Meccha smiled and rolled her eyes in mock exasperation at Sora’s apparently boundless faith in her mobile phone, even if the effort proved futile. Suddenly she felt an unnatural chill. At the edge of her vision she saw the others with her shift uneasily and then turn. They had sensed it too. A dark, human-sized form crouched huddled in the branches of a single leafless, twisted tree nearby - the only vegetation in sight. Its dark tattered robes whipped in the wind, like a black spirit trying to break free. They reached for their weapons, but halfway Soul hesitated. There was an air of familiarity about this being. The sight of a very long blondish ponytail whipping about as the wind gusted again confirmed what she knew in her heart.

"Shade!"

The figure’s head turned slowly toward them but his face was hidden in shadow.

"Not ... Shade," the inhuman voice was a whisper, almost inaudible, but somehow sounded clearly and forcefully within their minds. With unnatural speed - even for the undead werewolf - he leapt from the tree, robes billowing behind like liquid wings and landed in an animalistic crouch on the ground before them and stood up all in a single fluid movement.

Sora, Eshe, and Soul took an involuntary step back whilst Nightfall stood her ground, back arched and fur bristling. The partly vampiric cat could sense the aura of darkness about this creature.

He raised his head, letting them see his face properly for the first time. Both eyes were completely black, like endless voids that would draw in the souls of any who gazed too long, illuminated only by a small point of green-yellow light that served as a pupil.

Meccha cleared her throat and said uncertainly, "Uhm...my bad...Raven"

"Better," was the hissed reply.

"No offense, Mech, but I don’t get your taste in men," said Sora, hands on hips as she tried to hide her initial nervousness and current unease.

"How did you get here?" asked Eshe. If Shade, or Raven, or whoever he was at the moment had got here, then maybe the others were here now too. The question was ignored completely.

"We found the mortals who had gone missing. We think they will remain missing."

Soul didn’t like the implications of that statement, "Oh no, you didn’t..."

Shade’s face showed Raven’s apparent ‘hurt’ at Meccha suggesting his role in their demise, "No. We found the demon who did though." he smiled faintly.

Raven’s unemotional coldness and his dismissal of the demon’s victims simply as ‘mortals’ had riled Eshe, "Those were people who died! How can you not care?!" she yelled, grabbing him by the shoulder. She gasped and pulled back her had though when she felt him - colder than ice even through the heavy necromancer robes.

"Don’t touch me!" snarled the dracoliche, flinching back from the touch of living flesh.

But the cat mummy had had enough of this thing and his attitude "Why are you in control? Give Shade back!"

Raven laughed, "Until he wakes up, I shall remain in control. And as for what happened to Shade, the demon ‘totalled’ him," The dracoliche was quite pleased with himself for picking up ‘modern’ colloquialisms. To make his point fully he briefly opened the outer robe that covered F’lair’s usual garments of black leather jeans and a dark grey loose pirate shirt. He refrained from smirking at their shock.

At length Soul managed a quiet "Ow" of sympathy whilst Sora muttered about feeling sick: the werewolf had more or less been gutted. From below the neckline of the robe his chest had been torn clean open, the rent reaching to about halfway down his abdomen. Even his ribcage armour had been sliced through, although with Raven in control this was already starting to knit back together. This, coupled with a number of other deep lacerations had obviously caused F’lair to lose consciousness.

"I guess the demon didn’t expect you to get up once it took Shade down then," said Meccha. She was upset to see what had happened to her lover, "what happened to it?"

He rolled his eyes in exasperation, were the mortals’ minds so feeble that they could not at least guess what had happened?!, "It is dead." He did not go into the details such as the fact Raven had killed it by drinking its soul to increase his own power - this was one ability he did not want anyone to know about.

"What about Mira, Rathera and Black’?" asked Nightfall, feeling a sickening sense of worry that the demon had gotten to them too.

Raven opened his mouth to answer, but then paused and turned to look skyward, "We think they will be joining us right very soon ..."

* * *

Mira stole a sidelong glance at Blackjack as he walked beside her and Rathera up to the Hall of Mirrors. She wondered what was going on in his head: he hadn’t really spoken since being told of Shade’s disappearance and although he had, for once, looked concerned at that time, now his scarred face was just a mask. Although she did notice his wings were folded tighter than usual and the tip of his tail was twitching erratically.

The three had firstly looked for Sora, Eshe, Meccha and Nightfall, but besides the activated but empty Ghost Train there was no sign of them or clue as to where they were now. So now they had come back to the Hall of Mirrors. They stopped just inside the entrance.

"Which way?" asked Rathera. Three corridors branched out from where they stood, all looking equally the same.

"We went to the left ... I know some of the way but I’m not sure about the later turnings we took," Mira replied, gesturing in that direction.

Blackjack sighed, "Gee. Helpful,"

"Well excuse me if I forgot to leave a trail of breadcrumbs, but I was perhaps just a little distracted by what I’d experienced! " replied the fox guardian, angry at Blackjack’s insensitivity.

He suddenly crouched down, ignoring the look Mira was giving him, and sniffed at the ground, "The trail’s fainter than it should be, but it shouldn’t be too hard to retrace your steps."

"I don’t need your help yet. Like I said I remember the first bit!" Mira grabbed the cursed dragon’s thin waist-length plaits, one trailing down from just behind the jawline on each side of his head, and yanked to pull him along. He yelped and then cursed. Rathera just rolled her eyes and followed along.

Finally they reached the right place. Rathera studied the mirror at length, trying to detect traces of any magic that had been at work here, "It looks normal," she said after a while.

"It probably is."

"What do you mean? That thing just sort of came alive and grabbed F’lair, according to her" Rathera didn’t exactly class that as normal.

Blackjack ran a hand over the cool surface, his claws scraping lightly on it, "I mean it’s not the mirror itself that’s evil ... This whole carnival is affected. The individual events we’ve experienced suggest demonic activity is trying to break through. And this is causing isolated incidents that are transient, at best."

"‘Breaking through’? You mean coming into our reality from wherever, right?" Mira didn’t like the implications of this, "So all this is just reality getting warped by demons testing for weak points."

"Give the girl a prize," muttered Rathera, not really thinking she had needed to have this explained to her twice like that.

Mira didn’t lower herself to respond. It would doubtless lead to yet more of Rathera’s biting remarks, or earn her some sarcastic comment from Blackjack. She quietly mused that, if she ruled the world, she would lock those two in a room somewhere, throw away the key and Earth would be a better place for it... As far as she had been able to tell, the only saving grace between the pair of them was that Blackjack was at least trying to make up for his past. Unfortunately that still didn’t mean he was exactly a nice person and as for Rathera, Scarab’s lover (if ever the foul sorcerer could be capable of ‘love’), well...

She started at a sudden, frightening gutteral growl from the Daemonslayer, "Something’s up" he warned.

"You don’t say," replied Mira, not wanting him to see his snarl had made her jump. The corridor they were in had without warning sealed off. The three were surrounded by mirrors on all sides. The temperature was dropping rapidly and they saw that these mirrors gave no reflection. But unlike the one that had taken Shade, these ones were glowing, giving off light, and getting brighter by the second.

"Oh, shi.." the dragon’s groan was cut off as their entire world was filled with brilliant white light. Momentarily blinded, all they were aware of was a sensation of falling through some kind of wind tunnel, the deafening rush howling in their ears.

* * *

"..iitttt!!!!" the sound of a disembodied voice completing an expletive came out of nowhere, sounding distant but getting rapidly louder. Two more voices, these female, could also be heard yelling.

"What the ... ?!" the mummies, Daemonslayer and dracoliche ducked behind some nearby rocks as an explosion of white lightening appeared in the air about ten feet above where they had just been standing. The bolts coalesced and three forms became visible. They were instantly recognizable as Rathera, Mira and Blackjack. The lights faded and gravity took over, landing the three in an awkward heap that seemed to be all arms, legs, wings and a tail.

"Ow." Mira had come out best, landing on top of the other two.

"Get off, you idiot! Your fur’s suffocating me!"

"I’d love to, but someone’s currently leaning on my head," was the muffled reply.

"I can’t get up unless you do something about that tail!" retorted Mira. The sharp spikes of the aforementioned appendage, which was coiled about her, were a bit of a deterrent for any form of movement.

Coming out from behind the rocks, Meccha sighed and went over to help untangle the pile. Eshe and Sora helped whilst Nightfall offered advice on sorting the mess.

"Remind me never to get stuck with you two again!"

"The feeling’s mutual," muttered Blackjack. He looked preoccupied as he stood up and attempted to flex his wings. He winced, "Sprained," he said simply when Meccha looked at him, "Don’t go expecting any great aerial feats off me for a while."

"I know being older probably doesn’t mean you’re much wiser, but have you any idea where we are?" asked Rathera. She liked to have any situation she was in assessed, but that was a bit difficult when there was as of yet no information available.

Taking his attention off his damaged wing, Blackjack looked round, nonchalantly turning his back so no one could see the expression on his face. He knew exactly where they were and it definitely wasn’t good. Not answering the question he called over to Raven, "Raven - can I borrow you a moment?"

The two stood off to the side of the group, talking quietly. Meccha frowned and watched them, it annoyed her when those two did that. From the snatches of their quiet conversation that she caught she could tell they weren't speaking English. In fact, it wasn't even Caevalonian as she would have recognised some of the words. She frowned, if those two didn't want even her to know what they were saying then this was very bad.

"Are you okay Meccha?"

"Yeah ... just those two having one of their 'little chats'," Meccha said, giving her fellow Daemonslayers the evil eye as she bent down and scratched Nightfall behind the ears. The vampiric cat purred and leaned into the caress, but still eyed them warily too; Shade she had grown to trust - the two even sometimes teased each other about their natures - despite their relationship getting off on the wrong foot when a fight between them had almost destroyed the Sphinx back in San Francisco! Blackjack was another matter entirely. The fact that it was Raven rather than Shade he was conferring with just left the cat even more suspicious.

"What is it you wish to say?"

"You realise where this is, don't you? This is Het - this is ... was ... Shine's dimension! We have to find the way out or we're all done for - and that includes you!" For once the cursed dragon was genuinely concerned. The demons that inhabited this dimension would destroy any outsiders. And he knew that as the Daemonslayers Meccha and Shade faced worse fate. What he didn't want to think about though was what would happen to him - he had betrayed Shine and was more or less personally responsible for the DemonQueen's downfall. He wasn't going to be a popular person in her realm...

"Raven, this is bad I, he corrected himself ... we ... need Shade back,"

"I have control. You think I would give up what little freedom I can get so easily?"

Blackjack sighed, slid a glance at the rest of the group, and then looked straight into the endless darkness of those undead eyes. Leaning closer he lowered his voice further to make certain none but Raven could hear. Even if those words had been more audible, no one else would understand as he was speaking Ancient Draconic - a language spoken only amongst dragons and their kin, "You know I can invoke the power to command you. I can have words with our Senior and get you banished. You have your uses so don't make me do that."

Raven stared back a second longer, "This body is still not yet healed - full restoration would drain Shade too much, and he'll be weak enough as it is,"

"Just do it. And fill F'lair in on the details."

Raven closed his eyes, features marring into a slight frown of concentration. Suddenly Shade gave a groan - in his own voice this time - and slumped forward. Blackjack caught him and helped him upright, the others gave looks of concern and Meccha quickly came over, a look of accusation on her face,

"What did you -"

"It's all right. I got F'lair back, that's all."

Blackjack rounded on them, anger pulling the Daemonslayer’s discompassionate face into an ugly snarl, "This isn’t about your Prince anymore! And forget your feeble gods - I doubt they can help you now. This is about survival. This is about us. If you forget that ... you’ll die here. And I don’t intend to be dragged down with you."

He stalked on ahead and disappeared over the top of the ridge, leaving the rest of the group speechless behind. Shade looked like he was about to give chase, but Meccha grabbed his arm, giving it a firm, warning squeeze.

"And you two manage to put up with him all the time? How do you manage it?!" asked Sora in wonder.

"Much as I hate to admit it, he is right though," said Mira.

Rathera agreed with the sibyl. The demon Raven had dealt with had hunted and killed anyone who entered this realm since it had been hanging round near the gateway, and if something had happened to Presley here, then his Guardians would be dust by now, the bond keeping them alive (or at least an approximation thereof) broken. She also agreed with Blackjack that this was now about their survival. Presley was still on Earth so let Ja-Kal worry about him. The group trapped in Het had to take care of themselves.

Not wanting to just stand around, Eshe wandered over the top of the ridge after Blackjack. He was standing on a rocky ledge about twenty metres ahead, staring down at something on the landscape far below, currently out of Eshe’s vision as the ledge obscured most of the view. From what she could see though, the view went on for a long distance. Far off at the horizon lay a range of forbidding mountains, half lost in the low dark clouds. In front of them was a region of foothills, a darker band that could possibly be a forest and then, closest, was a flat expanse of land scarred by narrow gorges and canyons. Moving forward more came into view.

"You see that?" asked Blackjack, hearing the mummified cat’s approach. He’d done his mood switching trick again and now showed no trace of his anger from just before.

The land dipped, as though forming a river bed, but instead of water the landscape was split by a dark mass that shifted and seethed, almost like a dense column of something like ants. It was at least a mile across.

Eshe peered at it but it was hard to make out from this far away.

"What’s happening down there?"

"Looks like some sort of battle," said Nightfall, hovering in the air a metre or two above them as she and the others finally caught up and joined them, "But if that’s true then I can’t tell which side is which ... it looks more like everyone is having individual fights rather than working on one side. It doesn’t make any sense."

"This is a chaos dimension - of course it doesn’t make sense. This is an Eternal Battle," Blackjack ended the sentence there as if that was meant to have explained everything. But no one looked like they had fully understood. What is it with humans? wondered the dragon as he proceeded to explain, "It’s a bit like a proving ground for demons ... when Shine ruled they fought to rise high within her ranks. Now that the Sister of Chaos is gone, they just fight. There’s no real reason for it."

"I guess it’s just like part of the landscape then."

"Yeah - a really big part..." Eshe turned her head to look from horizon to horizon, watching the line of battle disappear beyond the limit of her vision, "How the hell do we get round it?"

Blackjack raised his eyebrows, thinking that idea to be more than a little hopeful, when he spoke he sounded almost amused, "Round it? It stretches forever..."

"You mean ... we have to go through it?" the prospect was not a hopeful one ...

To be continued...

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Please!!!! Comments are more than welcome! I need to know if I'm writing ppls characters properly! Or if this is actually any good! Thanks for reading!

disclaimer: Mummies Alive! et al belongs to DIC. No money being made, for entertainment only, blah blah blah.
Rathera, Mira, Sora, Eshe, Nightfall and Meccha belong to Rathera, Sekhmet, Panthatrona, Bastet, Nightfall and Medusa respectively. Used with permission. Calliope and Orissa belong to Caisia and Ruka respectively. Tell me if I missed anyone out. Boring bit over.

Comments, questions, whatever, can be addressed to me at the www.NecroDragon.com forum.